ZAKIYA COURTNEY​Motivated by scientific evidence connecting the link between diet and health, more and more conscious foodies are eating green by turning to vegetable-based meal choices at home and when dining out. Veg News reports that in response to this mushrooming trend, 51 percent of chefs have added plant-based, dairy-free, gluten-free menu selections.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde tackles views on feminism through the lens of being a black lesbian and how those two traits affect the way she navigates the world.

“This is much more than a book or a collection of writings. It’s an experience more like surviving a traumatic event, seeing a deep and distressing movie or having a long and difficult talk with someone who has been oppressed from all sides. It accomplishes that which no other book I have ever read has done. Lorde defies all the labels she and others use to describe her. It stares the weaknesses we all share right in the face and finds ways to fight if not conquer them. Lorde allows the reader to get inside her skin like no other writer, and for the first time ever, made me feel the anger, terror, fear, helplessness I have sensed in many if not all black people. And yet her greatest criticisms are not of whites, but especially of her black sisters and then her brothers. She clearly does not set herself apart because she knows she has had ‘my boot on a sister’s face.’”​Source: AA Dude. BuzzFeed

Susan G. Komen fought breast cancer with her heart, body and soul. Throughout her diagnosis, treatments, and endless days in the hospital, she spent her time thinking of ways to make life better for other women battling breast cancer instead of worrying about her own situation. Moved by Susan’s compassion for others and commitment to making a difference, Nancy G. Brinker promised her sister that she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer.

As the new president of the International Association of Sickle Cell Nurses and Professional Associates/IASCNAPA, Dr. Dora Clayton-Jones, an assistant professor and Arthur J. Schmitt Leadership Fellow at the Marquette University College of Nursing, will dedicate her tenure as president to increase awareness of sickle cell disease (SCD) while elevating patient care and advocacy. She explains, “Gene therapy is being developed. But remedies like bone marrow transplants aren’t widely available. So, we still have work to do in finding a cure and on the psychosocial level.”​

“Wisconsin received funding for a learning collaborative developed to reduce breast cancer mortalities for African-American women,” said Gail D. Johnson, Director of the Wisconsin Well Women Program (WWWP) in the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. “We intend to have direct contact with breast cancer survivors in the community, women who are personally affected, and those with a family member who died from this disease.”The WWWP is a federally funded program that provides free screening for breast and cervical cancer and related services for women throughout Wisconsin.​

Atlanta psychiatrist, Dr. Patrice A. Harris, MD, MA was elected 174th President of the American Medical Association (AMA) at its June meeting. She is the first African-American female to serve as president of the AMA, which represents medical doctors across the nation, in its 145-year history.

​American novelist, essayist, editor, teacher, and professor emeritus at Princeton University Chloe Anthony Wofford, known to the world as “Toni” Morrison, died on August 5, 2019 from complications of pneumonia at Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx, New York City. She was 88 years old.

Novelist Toni Morrison is pictured receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from former President Barack Obama in 2012.

​“Why was Toni Morrison so important? When she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, it was because she “in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality. In each of her works Morrison manages to find a new way to think about and look upon blackness as it stands in American life.” Source Unknown | Dec 15, 2016

Sherrea Jones, Ph.D., explained, “I’ve always known that serving in a medical capacity and mentoring others is what I wanted to do. I’m humbled to be a mirror image and source of inspiration for individuals from underserved populations and inspire their ambitions to heights beyond their circumstances.”​

Principal All of Us participants are Froedtert Hospital, Medical College of Wisconsin, Marshfield Clinic Health System, University of Wisconsin, School of Medicine and Public Health, and the BloodCenter of Wisconsin. Vanderbilt University Medical Center will lead the program’s national data and research center.

Pastor Michael O. Minor, Ph.D. gained national notoriety initially for banning fried chicken at events at his church in Hernando, Mississippi. But, his reputation as a disciple of faith-based mobilization for health purposes was signed, sealed, and delivered following his successful campaign for the Affordable Care Act. He is credited for enrollment in Obamacare of over 200,000 uninsured Mississippi residents. Subsequently, First Lady Michelle Obama requested his help to promote her “Let’s Move” anti-obesity campaign, and welcomed him to the White House on numerous occasions.